Celebrating 100 Years of Youth Ministry

“The story of Youth Unlimited begins, like many of our stories, with immigrants,” Rick Zomer told the delegates of Synod 2019.

Zomer is the director of Youth Unlimited, a non-denominational organization with roots in the Christian Reformed Church. It focuses on assisting local congregations in their youth ministry. This year, it celebrates its 100th anniversary. Zomer provided delegates with an overview of that 100 year history.

It started in the 1890’s with a wave of Dutch immigrants coming to the United States, said Zomer.

“In 1893 some of these immigrants, looking for community with like-minded individuals, founded the Christian Reformed League of Illinois,” he said. 

Additional, similar leagues soon followed in Michigan and New Jersey, and they all shared a focus on scripture and spiritual growth. 

These leagues operated independently for awhile but in 1919 they joined forces to become a national organization. This American Federation of Reformed Young Men Societies became the predecessor of Youth Unlimited.

“Almost immediately, these young men began to hold large-scale, yearly meetings known as conventions,” said Zomer.  “The first was held in 1920 in Grand Rapids, Michigan and had 26 leagues in attendance.” 

These leagues also launched a publication called The Young Calvinist magazine. 

“The model of individual league meetings, annual corporate gatherings, and magazine publication all run and led by young people continued faithfully and grew steadily in numbers over the next decade,” said Zomer. 

In the 1930’s, the AFRYM societies were joined by a parallel organization called the American Federation of Reformed Young Women’s societies. Despite some struggles during World War II and the need to halt conventions for several years, the two groups continued as best they could. 

In 1955 they merged to become the Young Calvinist Federation - an entity that extended across the United States and Canada. In addition, an organization for young boys - known as the Calvinist Cadet Corps - started in 1952. And the Calvinettes - now called GEMS - began in 1958. 

In the 1960s, Zomer said, Christian schools and catechism classes were meeting many of the needs of young people. As a result, YCF shifted some of their emphasis away from Bible studies to focus more on providing opportunities for young people to serve. 

In the 1960’s, Summer Workshops in Missions (SWIM) was started and gave young people the chance to spend six to eight weeks of their summer working in a church context leading Vacation Bible school or other acts of service at locations across the United States and Canada. 

Later, in the 1980’s, YCF added programs to equip youth pastors, and new initiatives such as SERVE, which provided one to two week mission trips to young people. 

And in 1993, YCF changed its name to Youth Unlimited. Today, Youth Unlimited continues to provide support and resources to youth ministry leaders. It also places more than 1,200 North American students and volunteers at SERVE sites each summer. As it looks to the future, they are considering what other ways they can support churches.

“Our mission statement states that Youth Unlimited helps churches challenge youth, commit their lives to Jesus Christ and transform the world for him,” said Zomer. “This focus has not changed over YU’s history, but the ways in which we work to achieve this mission has.” 

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